Vienna 'momentum' must be seized, says UN Syria envoy

NEW YORK

The United Nations' envoy to Syria said Tuesday that the "momentum" of the recent Syria talks in Vienna should be bolstered to help the discussions yield "deliverables" for the long-suffering Syrians.

The momentum generated in Vienna "needs to not be missed", Staffan de Mistura told reporters in New York ahead of a new round of high-level talks due on Saturday in the Austrian capital.

“Think about where we were a few months ago. We never imagined we would have the Russian Federation and the [U.S.] heading the same table, and on one side having Saudi Arabia and Iran on the other, plus other countries," Mistura said.

Facilitated by Russia and the U.S., the talks on Oct. 30 involved foreign ministers from 15 countries including Turkey, Qatar and France, as well as senior representatives of the EU and UN.

Ministers agreed to ask the UN to start a process that could lead to a new constitution and elections, but failed to find common ground on the future of President Bashar al-Assad.

Asked what he hoped Saturday's talks would achieve, Mistura said: "We want the meetings to bring some deliverables to the Syrian people and one of them should be a reduction of the violence."

"Some type of lessening of the conflict and I hope something along those lines can be achieved,” he said.

Mistura added that the talks were likely to produce discussions on three main topics: Terrorism, the opposition, and humanitarian issues.

The envoy said the UN would not assume responsibility in identifying the terrorists or lead any of the discussions. “The UN is not calling these meetings. We are supporting,” he said.

Syria’s devastating civil war, now in its fifth year, has claimed more than 250,000 lives, according to UN figures, and made the country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced people.

About 13.5 million people in Syria are now in need of humanitarian assistance and some sort of protection, according to the UN.